That Stupid Ring

Part 6

******* BACK TO THE PRESENT ********

PARIS'S CUBICLE AT WORK

Dale's face is turning white. He actually dropped his cellphone on the floor and suddenly, he starts shouting. "PRINCE WILLIAM?"

"Hush!" I shout in panic and start hitting his arm, "Dale, control your volume!"

"I can't breathe━" he fans his face with his fingers in exaggeration, "Oh my God, this is major."

"Do not tell anyone."

"But how about that friend of yours, that Beth? She must have known by now?"

I shake my head, "Until today, Beth still thinks I ran away with one of the Palace's guards. I never got around to tell her the truth."

"You're crazy. You're one crazy woman, you know that? Why are you keeping all of this to yourself?" Dale shrieks, "You should tell this story with pride. Other girls would have probably sold it to PEOPLE magazine!"

I pause for a bit before replying, "But I want to keep this one to myself."

"What happened after that? I mean, did you...."

"We ended up staying in Nettleton for a week. One week and three days, to be exact."

"ONE WEEK?" Dale shouts and I hit his arm again. "Oh right, sorry. Holy crap. How did you end up being there for a week? What did you tell the Chaperone?"

"I told her the Palace awarded me a set of return tickets to London as another prize. I told her I was using that ticket to extend my trip so I can explore London a bit more. She believed me."

"Smooth," Dale nods, "Okay, and then what happened? What did you and Prince William do at a countryside for one week and three days?"

"Well," I let out a sigh, "We got around to call it The Week of The Firsts. We did things that the other has not done it before. For example, he taught me river-fishing, horse-riding..." 

"I wonder what sort of Firsts you taught him," Dale sneers, "I bet they were all sexual."

I chuckle, "No, he was asking me a lot of questions. He said to me that everyone else he's met before me has pretty similar lives with him. I was different. He asked me what what my day looked like in New York, and how to ride Subway. We talked, a lot."

"So you two were basically nesting?"

"Pretty much," I nod, "We would wake up, make breakfast, talk, go to this farm to pick something we can cook for lunch, talk some more, read books, go to the river to swim, talk, make dinner, talk, sit by the fireplace, talk, lay underneath the stars, talk, sleep, and everything starts all over again the next day."

"Lay underneath the stars....." his eyes swoon, "You two were living in one of those Hallmark movies."

"There's this old water tower, about three-stories high. The owner converted it into a B&B but no one knew it existed so it was always empty. What's great is the owner is a 63-year-old lady named Edith who didn't know who William was. So we helped her with daily chores. She made us tea and bread, let us hang around in the rooms, especially this one at the very top, where you can see the ocean. One day we were able to catch the most beautiful sunset from there. We made love in that room because of it."

"Oh my God," Dale sighs, "I'm going to cry. I can't believe you lost your virginity to the Prince of England. I'm guessing it was worth it."

I let out another sigh. 

"Did you fall in love with him though?" Dale asks

I pause. 

"I bet you did," Dale says again. 

"It was hard not to. The whole experience was very intense. This entire week in this countryside, it was all about him. In a way, he became my world."

Dale smiles. "He became your world."

"Yap," I say, turning back to my laptop.

"Wait," he asks again, "How about the ring? That blue sapphire ring. What's with that?"

***